all those pretty lights
by she-who-must-not-be-stalked
Summary: 13 prompts equals to 13 drabbles/one-shots of random themes and various genres. —Sakura/Sasuke-centric. AU.
1. ashes

**prompt: **ashes (but Andrew Belle's "In Your Sleep" kind of aided the writing process a bit. hee.)

**warnings: **potential plot holes.

**disclaimer: **if I owned Naruto, I would have long known why Kakashi killed Rin, Mito would have somehow ended up with Madara (I just ship them, I don't know why - and it's not even canon, duh), Shisui and Itachi would still be alive and kicking - oh, the list of plot modifications will simply be endless.

**dedication: **to HasiVA - thank you, thank you, _t____hank __you _for being the first to review.

* * *

**1. ashes**

**.**

.

.

He watched the same pink-haired woman walk pass him by for the umpteenth time for the day – her neat ponytail in the morning now undone leaving messy, disheveled locks flowing down to her shoulders. Her white coat was stained slightly with blood and some unidentifiable substance that suspiciously looked like strawberry syrup and the cheery, free-spirited girl in was gradually being replaced with a more subdued, unsmiling version. The look in her sea-foam green (he couldn't help but _take notice_) irises simply mirrored the exhaustion and fatigue that was clearly showing in her steps. _She was mesmerizing –_

Sasuke mentally shook off the thought of even…getting involved with her and dragging her into the mess that he called his life – not that she'd actually know who he was, _anyway_ – he wasn't here for that kind of purpose, _damnit!_ He had an extremely important, life-changing kind of unfinished business to be done. Absolutely no one - not even her or the thought of his _dear brother now lying six-feet deep underground _(he gritted his teeth involuntarily as he thought of him) – will dissuade him from his goal.

God, he hated returning _home._ The very word '_home_' tasted bitter in his throat.

He hated Taka. (_Stupid 'special team' that ended up derailing his plans -_)

He hated Akatsuki. (_Stupid organization and corporate bullshit - didn't they even realise that they too were merely worthless pawns in this twisted game of Madara's?_)

He hated Uchiha Itachi. (_Why did you die too soon and at their hands?_)

Heck, he hated all Uchihas – whatever and whoever left remained of that absurdly power-hungry clan of his; anyway – and himself even more.

He hated the intricate world of lies and manipulations that became synonymous with their name and tainted their reputation over time.

But he was an Uchiha still, and he was fatefully doomed to walk down the same path – although the path he took was perhaps what the rest of them viewed as 'sinking even lower than filth'.

At least he was being openly traitorous, then. At least he was honest enough to declare his disloyalty. (Or even lack of thereof, since he and Itachi did what they did to save the _goddamned_ city from the clutches of their _goddamned screwed shit_ clan -) At least he knew where he stood and what ideals he held on to.

Despite looking like the rest of them on the surface, he - and Itachi - was very unlike them underneath.

He was merely finishing the task Itachi had started years before he was born.

.

.

.

* * *

.

"Sir?"

A firm but gentle voice coming from his left interrupted his thoughts. That pink-haired doctor had somehow slid into the empty seat next to him. Sasuke cursed at himself inwardly. Day one, and he was already failing – so much for trying to go incognito.

He was barely aware of the fact that she had been watching him staring into space with an expression that was so hauntingly blank for quite some time. The newspaper that he was using as a prop (he needed more work on his camouflaging tactics, obviously) was now set wide open on his lap, unread.

"Hn?"

His dark, obsidian orbs met her jade-coloured ones almost reluctantly.

"Are you all right? I mean, I don't mean to sound like I'm being stalker-ish or anything but you've been here since morning and it's…almost midnight. And you've been blanking out for almost like, half an hour or something-"

"I'm fine." He retorted back, the words coming out harsher than he meant them to be.

"Well, okay. I'm Sakura."

_The name fits._

"Uh, should I take that as a compliment or something?"

Apparently he made the mistake of thinking out loud and she had caught him off-guard.

He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Sasuke."

"Are you an Uchiha?" The words came out before she could rephrase or even rethink the damned question. Sakura had never actually met one – even though they were the funders of this very hospital, apart from seeing them in newspapers, faces printed in mere black and white. The clan was notorious for their privacy, their zealously guarded private lives. You only knew what they chose to let you know – and that was the miniscule, teeny details that barely mattered. They were an enigma, a mystery to the Konoha public; unlike their counterparts in the city - the Senju and Hyuuga clans.

She couldn't help but ask, however nosy her question must have sounded to him; his Uchiha-ish features were so prominent. Dark hair, dark eyes, well-built figure, and overall facial bone structure – he just looked like one, _period._

"Aaa."

Sakura considered his answer for a while and decided it was better for her to not ask any further questions. She knew she was probably barging into uncharted waters by the slightly pained look in his eyes, even though he was replying to her in an off-handed manner. Sakura was not the kind to intrude and she had learnt one lesson to harsh to ever forget of the dangers that came with poking around other people's matters.

Curiousity had actually killed her friendship – and that friend, literally - once. Flashes of Yamanaka Ino's bloodied face and mutilated body replayed in her mind involuntarily.

Sasuke noted her haunted gaze at his face, the single tiny drop of tear trickling down her left cheek - as if she was relieving something she would rather forget - and decided to keep talking.

"I'm not proud to be one of them, you know. If I could choose being born into another clan, another family; I would - although I wouldn't trade Itachi for any other brother,"

His expression softened slightly as he mentioned the name 'Itachi'. And that name triggered something in her memory, a fragment of lost information she had never told to anyone.

_Oh wait_, that Itachi had been _here_ - seeking for her help in the dead of the morning when she was the sole person left working her extra shift-hours off.

_No wonder they looked almost alike - they're brothers_, she noted.

He had requested a six months-worth of analgesics a few times, offering her a wad of cash in return and telling her to keep the whole thing off-record. Tsunade had told her to anticipate his visit beforehand, (apparently he had a secret deal of some kind with Tsunade - since Sakura could never find his name in the hospital records anywhere) instructing to prescribe which and what to him. All she really knew of his condition that he was suffering from incurable ailment and was merely biding himself for more time at that point. _I should have been dead by now, Sakura-chan_, he told her with a good-natured chuckle. She enjoyed his friendly and charming company despite the brief period of their encounters.

(They met only thrice, before Tsunade told her that he was already dead last month. But as usual, Tsunade refused to divulge into the further details Sakura craved for.)

"Itachi used to come here a lot,"

_Three visits for every six months did count as a lot, anyway._

Realizing her blabbering mouth, she facepalmed herself.

Again, said body part failed to co-operate with her brain's orders to simply shut up and let him talk. However, Sasuke was too lost in his own trail of thoughts to notice her actions.

"He did?"

She nodded in reply.

He looked pained.

"He was _that_ sick, huh?"

"But the analge- I mean, the painkillers he requested during his last visit would have lasted up till this point, unless his body was starting to reject those meds-"

"His illness didn't...'took' him..." he paused, contemplating his choice of words, "..._They_ took them." He practically spat out the last part of the sentence, cutting her words - anger was now clearly radiating off him as his dark irises suddenly flaring a dangerous shade of red. Sasuke tried to calm himself down as she saw her flinch slightly at his profound display of emotion.

Sakura didn't know what to reply to that, so she simply kept quiet - letting a few more moments of silence pass further between them. She was surprised at their comfortably shared silence.

He suddenly folded up the newspaper in his lap carefully, placing in on her lap instead and rose up from his seat.

"Tell nothing to anyone."

Then, to her surprise – his lips hovered over her forehead, pressing a light kiss on top of her head. She closed her eyes as she felt the pressure of his lips on hers, his hands lifting her off her seat. _This was his way of saying goodbye, huh? _He savoured the taste of her mouth, the pleasure of finally being human and feeling something while she basked in the enjoyment of having a thoroughly excellent first kiss. Neither of them wanted to let go and both wanted to pause time and space -

It was their secret.

One that would linger and haunt her in her slumber for months (perhaps even years) to come, while he takes it to his death forever - to the realm of otherworldly.

* * *

The cerulean-eyed, blond-haired Grim Reaper (kind of ironic, _ne_, since the personification of Death should really be...dark/emo/morbid/gloomy) smiled upon the sight of them - and fated _(whoever said that Death could never play Cupid was very wrong)_ that she would meet him again in her death, as she came to him in moments of his death beforehand.

They would_ (eventually)_ reunite in death.

But for now..._ah...one shall__ die if the other lives, huh?_

The Grim Reaper chuckled in amusement at the very knowledge of the chronology of events that was about to unfold before his sights.

* * *

He was already gone at the very moment Sakura re-opened her eyes, slipping away from the corridor quietly. _He might just be a dream, _the voice in her head whispering to her alone. But looking at the newspaper folded carefully on the floor made her realize that her imagination had not actually gone into overdrive.

She flipped through a few pages of the newspaper he left before a single headline caught her attention –

* * *

_**THE YOUNG UCHIHA HEIR DECLARED MISSING IDENTIFIED AS UCHIHA SASUKE, REVEALED AS A TRAITOR TO KONOHA IN AN EXCLUSIVE TELL-ALL PRESS CONFERENCE**_

_Friday, 23 July 2021_

_KONOHAGAKURE, JAPAN: After months of intensive rescue-and-search mission, the formerly unnamed young Uchiha clan member who reportedly died in a car crash – is now officially declared missing as his body was never found in the wreckage. DNA traces identify the Uchiha heir as Uchiha Sasuke; the sole-_

* * *

The rest of the words that she saw became blurry to her vision – all she saw was the face imprinted in lifeless monochrome looking back at her.

Him.

The _Uchiha Sasuke._

_It was really him, then. He was...is...real and tangible. _

And then her world faded into black.

* * *

_Smokesmokesmoke, _she thought as she began to stir from her fainting spell. She tried to stand on her two feet without feeling too dizzy, but ended up sitting on the hospital floor instead. Spots of light were flashing in her eyes and blinding her vision. Sakura panicked inwardly as she inhaled more smoke – it was getting thicker, _with more soot and ash _-

She coughed. She felt her lungs getting more suffocated by the moment. Raging flames surrounded her, lighting the hospital corridors in blazing shades of orange and yellow. Sweat was tricking down her whole body – it was getting hotter, too. She was probably going to die, anyway – the poisonous gases in her respiratory system she'd been breathing in (and still was breathing in), the four-degree burns she would sustain if she chose to make a run through all those flames-

_How to run? How to survive? How to...live?_

Sakura closed her eyes and resigned to her fate. She wasn't a helpless, weak coward; but this situation felt like a lost cause. She would lose everything and gain nothing. Death was already claiming her, the Grim Reaper hovering down her head (_or at least in her head_)

_Might as well accept the fact that I'll be dead in less than an hour, now – _her heart whispered.

Funnily enough, her whole life did not flash before her eyes as the near-death-experience cliché the whole world had touted it to be.

She saw nothing, but _his eyes -_

Watching her crumpled figure lying on the hospital floor, her face serene – he realized that couldn't let her die.

.

.

.

.

So he saved her.

_On the price of his own._

_I deserve it, anyway, _he thought, as he carried her to the safety of the hospital's gardens unscathed while the fire scorched his flesh leaving grotesque burns that disfigured, the pain stinging down to every nerve that contained in his body.

She was alive, but only barely. And that was enough. Pressing his lips to her forehead again – was it a real, goodbye kiss, now? - he walked back inside, heading towards his death heads on.

Every last bit of evidence/proof/truths regarding Uchiha clan treason – would die with the destruction of this hospital (_their fortress of secrets for years_), the clan mansion (_he had killed them all, all, all; MadaraObitoIzuna – sparing none)_ and he himself.

Clean slate. Blank page. Fresh start.

It would be as if the Uchiha clan had never existed.

_("Why even bother preserving a clan so hell-bent on passing down the curse of hatred – a clan so tainted by bloodlust and the never-ending hunger of power only to have them wreck and destroy?")_

And finally, Konoha – _and the lovely, delicate, blooming_ Sakura - would be safe.

.

.

.

* * *

a/n:

- I think I made this story became even more...warped. Ha.

- The Grim Reaper is definitely our favourite blond. (_I couldn't resist. *insert evil laughter*_)

- Um, both reviews & flames are equally welcomed. I won't bite. Honest.


	2. elevators

**prompt:** elevators.

**warning:** fluffy, cheesy, corny.

**disclaimer:** the uber-amazing Kishi-san owns Naruto, y'guys!

* * *

**2. elevators**

.

.

.

She pressed the down button of the elevator as the doors slammed shut quietly, cold seeping through her already-freezing fingers. The Konoha Public Library was essentially a huge refrigerator of sorts - the one proof was that she was still shivering despite wearing layers of clothing. The place was very packed during weekends like this, filled with students of all ages including her, a Konoha U (KU) sophomore majoring in English Language and Literature.

.

.

.

"You've been staring at me for the last few days," A deep and smooth male voice suddenly whispered into her left ear, warm breath fanning her skin.

Despite the more rational part of herself repeatedly telling her to not look back, her eyes decided to shift their line of vision to her left - and her heart almost leaped out of her throat.

.

.

.

_Him._

That Uchiha guy.

The youngest.

.

.

.

"Huh?" She faked a clueless expression, pretending to not recognize him.

He merely smirked back, a shadow of a tiny curve upward playing on his lips.

She actually did recognize him, in fact; they had lived in the same housing area for the past few years pre-university days - and the fact that she had drove past his home (okay, more like a huge mansion then, since Uchihas were known to be absurdly rich) more than a few times. They also happened to attend the same university and shared one or two classes together, him majoring in Engineering instead after transferring in to KU from Oto U barely a few months back.

It was pretty much common knowledge that Uchiha Sasuke came from a very well-off family that happened to also be notably known for their long-list of prodigies.

Sakura however, was the perfect opposite - bling and intellect-wise. She had to literally work her ass off in order to be accepted into KU under a full scholarship. But as far as she was to be concerned, he never actually realized her (_insignificant, invisible, unimportant_) existence. Heck, he probably did not even know her name or who she was; assuming he was really that snobbish and stuck-up jerk that he was rumoured to be. (But who really trusts the words of disgruntled fangirls, anyway?) Not that she actually bothered to waiver his attention, though - she had more pressing matters to deal with than making efforts to capture the heart of an obnoxiously rich Uchiha heir.

.

.

.

A few moments of silence passed as they stared into each others' eyes; him with a curiously hungry expression, her almost shyly. The very smug look on his face told her that he didn't exactly buy her words.

"Well, I happen to hate guys who wear skinny jeans," she blurted out almost hastily.

I_ happen to hate guys who wear skinny jeans? What the hell, Sakura; what the hell?_ Of all the things she could actually have said... Gah. _Baka baka baka._ She restrained herself from bonking her head on the elevator walls and resorted to mentally slapping herself instead for that randomly stupid remark. The short elevator ride (_from the ground floor to the fifth_) was starting to feel painfully long.

He cocked an eyebrow in amusement, glancing down at his pants (skinny jeans, of course - a shade of washed out dark blue) for a few seconds before focusing his eyes back on her as she awkwardly half-smiled. He stared intently at her, mentally taking note of her features.

She was actually very, very pretty - albeit in a less striking way. A touch of makeup and hair product, some fashion adjustments here and there and a straighter posture would definitely do her good. Too bad he hadn't noticed her much earlier. _So lovely,_ he thought.

.

.

.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief as the elevator door opened suddenly with a loud pinging noise. She basically saw her chance to escape before she started saying or doing anything stupid in front of him.

"If you'd excuse me - I should just -"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her in, before slamming her against one of the walls of the elevator. One hand was wrapped around her waist, while another hand was pressing a button to keep the doors shut as he kissed her gently. She kissed him back with equal fervour, ignoring the resounding chorus of voices in her head telling her to pull away. His kiss was of the long and slow kind - the kind of kiss that managed to make her head spin, her eyes see fireworks exploding all around their heads, her heart feel_waaaaaaayyy_ too much and her nerve endings tingle excitedly.

He pulled away, releasing his grip on her and the elevator button he was pressing - a satisfied smirk now playing on his lips.

"I'd like to do that again... someday," he said, nonchalantly as they both stepped outside - into the clear view of everyone else watching.

She could only blush as she trailed after his steps.

.

.

.

* * *

a/n:

- I suppose Sasuke is...a bit out of character. (Ugh. I might have forgotten how to _actually write him._)


End file.
